Hobby stores, like so many retailers, experienced their fair share of challenges during the pandemic-led recession of the last year. So it is not surprising that a small retailer in this category approached signing a new lease at a South Florida mall with caution.

The owner of the mall, Beth Azor of Azor Advisory Services in Weston, understood. So she gave the owner a sweetheart of a deal: free rent for October, November and December.